Empire of Light

Ty glanced at Olivarri, who was pretending not to listen. He had no idea what the other man might report to Corso, though perhaps it was better to play safe. 'But not this time,' he added, for Olivarri's sake. 'Maybe next time.'

'What next time?' Nancy jeered, smacking him in the chest with a glove she had removed before tossing it into a bin below the helmet rack. She was gri

'Soon,' he mouthed at her, then glanced again at Olivarri to make sure he hadn't noticed. He would sneak up to Nancy's quarters only when he thought he was less likely to run into anyone else.

'Shower!' Olivarri shouted, pushing away from them and heading towards the washing facilities. 'I need a fucking shower.' With a thin, permeable mask covering his nose and mouth, Ty groaned with pleasure as needle-thin jets of hot water washed away the tension that had gathered between his shoulders. The water shut off after two minutes, and was rapidly vacuumed out of the sealed shower cubicle while he leaned against its door.

He looked down at where his skin was red and chafed from wearing a pressure suit for hours at a time. When he closed his eyes, all he could see was stars scattered across the void like diamond dust.

Ty glanced down at the ring he still wore on his right hand, as the cubicle door clicked open. That encounter with the avatar back in Unity felt more and more surreal, the further the Mjollnir got from home, and yet the ring was always there to remind him he hadn't just imagined it.

He grabbed a towel and pushed his way out, hastily drying himself before pulling on a set of clean clothes from the locker. How, he wondered, might he have gone about arranging that strange encounter, if he had been in the shoes of whoever was behind the avatar? What resources would he have needed?

Access to explosives, for a start. Ty brushed his fingers through his damp hair as he thought. Explosives wouldn't be too hard to get hold of, for someone determined enough. His time with Peralta had taught him how cheap fabricators could be hacked to mix the right chemical compounds. Unma

Ty paused, his eye catching the glint of the ring. The avatar/agent had threatened to expose him if he didn't take the ring, but in reality he had already been exposed. For a start, Marcus Weil had recognized him, and he hadn't been quiet about it. Quite possibly Martinez and the other members of the frigate's crew were the only ones who did not know his true identity. All in all, it made a mockery of the avatar's threat.

Filled with a sudden decisiveness, Ty grasped the ring and started to pull it off. He would fling it into the void the next time he was outside the ship.

He tugged it as far as his knuckle and then froze, gripped by a sudden conviction that something terrible would happen if he took the ring off. He just stood there, bewildered by his own sudden reluctance.

'Hey.'

Ty spun around, his heart in his throat. It was Olivarri, and he had been so sure he was alone.

'Are you all right?' asked Olivarri. 'You were standing there staring into space like you'd seen your own ghost.'

'I'm fine. I was just…' Ty reached up and realized with some confusion that his hair was now bone-dry. How long had he stood motionless? 'I must be more exhausted than I thought,' he stammered.

'Yeah, I guess.' Olivarri nodded warily. 'Takes it out of all of us. Some of us haven't clocked this much time doing EVA in more than ten years.'

Ty realized all he wanted to do was get out of there. 'I guess so,' he replied, and stepped past the other man.

'Wait.'

Ty turned back in irritation.

'There's something we need to talk about,' said Olivarri.

He stepped over to open a locker, withdrawing a slim black box. He placed this on a shelf under a mirror, then touched a hidden switch on top. A single orange light on one side blinked into life.

Ty stared at the device in confusion. 'What is that?'

'It's a jamming device. I'm just making sure our conversation stays private, in case anyone's listening in.'

Ty looked around. 'What exactly is it you want, Leo?'

'You're going to help me make sure the Mos Hadroch gets into the right hands, Mr Whitecloud.'

Ty stared back at him. 'Who exactly are you?'

Olivarri spoke low and fast. 'I work for the Legislate, Ty. I can make sure you're safe when you get back to the Consortium. Nobody will ever find you, and that's more than Senator Corso could ever guarantee. As far as anyone's concerned, you'll disappear. If you cooperate, we'll give you a whole new life, and you'll never have to worry about anyone tracking you down again. All you have to do is agree to help me.'

'So… you're, what? A spy?'

'I work for the Consortium Security Services. I was meant to bring you into custody along with the Mos Hadroch. Then the Senator decided to take the frigate by force and, by the time I learned about it, it was too late to come up with an alternative plan.'

Ty shook his head. 'Just what is it you want from me?'

'Nothing just yet,' Olivarri replied. 'Right now I'm just establishing contact. We wanted the artefact where we could run our own tests but, by the looks of it, Merrick and Corso have access to information we don't. For the moment, we're going to let them run things the way they want to.'

Ty stared back at him. 'Then what the hell do you need me for?'

'We're concerned about what happens to the artefact after it's been implemented. It's a powerful weapon that could conceivably be used to shut down the Tierra cache once the Mjollnir returns to the Consortium – or any other cache, for that matter. That makes it too valuable to allow it to remain in anyone else's hands.'

So that's it. 'But why didn't you tell me any of this before – when you first contacted me? And what about this ring?' he asked, bringing his hand up and displaying it to Olivarri. 'What the hell is it for?'

'What?' Olivarri glared at him. 'Ty, what the hell are you talking about?'

'What am I talking about?' Ty laughed. 'You're the ones who contacted me.'

'Ty, no one else in the security services has been in contact with you, apart from myself, believe me.'

'But…' The explosion, the taxi, the meeting with the avatar.

'Wait,' continued Ty. 'This doesn't make sense. There was that Consortium agent back in Unity. Who was he?'

Someone who merely claimed they worked for the Consortium, Ty reflected. He stared at the ring on his finger as if seeing it for the first time. He had a sudden, overwhelming sense that there was something he needed to remember.

'Ty, I swear, nobody from my side has approached you before now. I can guarantee that.'

Then who the hell…?

Ty suddenly felt a deep terror grip hold of him. He pushed roughly past Olivarri, the sudden motion sending the other man sprawling.

Ty collided with the door, and clumsily pulled himself through, and kept going, caroming from side to side as he made his way down a passageway leading towards the nearest transport station. Only once he had reached it, and climbed inside a car, did he finally come to a halt, lungs aching breathlessly.

He glanced frequently out through the car's open door towards the hub entrance, but there was no sign yet that Olivarri had followed him.

Ty was seized by a crippling pain in his head and he doubled over, gripping his skull and crying out at the unexpectedness of it. As he squeezed his eyes tight shut, he saw a tiny but intense flash of light in his peripheral vision, and…